8 Best Loom Alternatives in 2026 (Free + Paid, No Sign-up Needed)

Last updated May 22, 2026 — refreshed for the Atlassian price hike fallout, current tool versions, and 2026 free-tier limits. We rebuilt this from scratch because every other "Loom alternatives" listicle is written by a Loom competitor that ranks itself #1.

What changed with Loom in 2026 (read this first)

If you're searching for a Loom alternative right now, you almost certainly fall into one of three buckets — and the rest of this guide is built around them.

1. The Atlassian price shock. After the 2023 acquisition, Atlassian quietly restructured Loom's seat model through 2025. By Q1 2026 the former "Creator Lite" role (the bench-warming seat most viewers were parked on) was discontinued and forcibly migrated to full paid seats. Multiple teams have reported their bill going from ~$240/year to ~$24,000/year overnight on a 100-seat migration. The numbers below quantify that for the seat counts most teams sit at.

2. The free-tier squeeze. Loom's Starter (free) plan in 2026 caps you at 25 videos lifetime per person, 5-minute max length, and 720p quality. AI features (transcript, summary, titles) are paid-only from $15/user/month. If you ever recorded a 12-minute walkthrough on the old free tier, you can't anymore.

3. The reliability dent. Q4 2025 saw three documented public-facing incidents on Loom's status page — a 6-hour performance degradation on Oct 27, a wide video outage on Nov 17, and a 7-hour audio failure on Nov 19. These didn't kill Loom, but they handed every competitor a free marketing month.

Atlassian cost impact, by team size

This is the table competitor listicles keep alluding to without doing the math. Old price assumes the discontinued Creator Lite seat at $20/user/year. New price assumes Business plan at $18/user/month ($216/year).

This is why every team-collaboration thread on /r/SaaS, /r/sales, and /r/Entrepreneur is full of "what are we actually using instead of Loom?" posts in 2026. The eight options below are the honest answers.

At-a-glance: 8 Loom alternatives compared

The pattern is clear: only two tools in this entire space offer truly unlimited recording with no per-video gate — Clipy and OBS. OBS gives you a local file. Clipy gives you a share link in under two seconds. That's the wedge.

1. Clipy — the best free Loom alternative in 2026

Clipy is the closest like-for-like replacement for Loom's record-and-share workflow, and it's been the default screen recorder for the Codersera team since early 2026. We build it. We use it daily. We're putting it at #1 because — being honest — it's the tool we'd genuinely choose if we didn't make it.

The pitch is uncomplicated: open clipy.online in any Chromium browser, click record, hit stop, and you have a share link in roughly two seconds. No app to install if you don't want one. No account to create if you don't want one. No watermark, ever. No 5-minute cap. No video count limit. The streaming upload happens during recording, which is why the share link is ready almost the instant you stop — you're not waiting for a render queue.

What Clipy does that Loom charges for

• AI auto-transcript on every recording — free. Click any timestamp in the transcript to jump to that moment in the video.
• AI summary on every recording — free. The 30-second TL;DR Loom locks behind its $15/user/month AI add-on.
• Chat with the video — ask "what did they say about the database migration?" and jump to the answer.
• Unlimited cloud storage and unlimited share links. No 25-video lifetime cap.
• In-browser trim editor with start/end/middle cuts before sharing.
• In-recording blur — drag a region over the bit of your screen with the API key on it.
• Live annotations — pen, arrows, rectangles, all fade out after a few seconds.
• Cursor spotlight + click highlights — the polish people use Screen Studio for, included.
• Webcam overlay with draggable bubble (circle, pill, or rectangle).
• Slack inline preview — paste a Clipy link in a channel, the video plays in-line.

Distribution and platforms

• Web app: clipy.online — works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Vivaldi, Opera. Firefox and Safari support varies (Chromium is the smoothest path).
• Mac app: native menu-bar app at clipy.online/download. Apple Silicon only (M1/M2/M3/M4/M5), macOS 12.3+. Direct DMG download — not on the Mac App Store.
• Chrome extension: hotkey Alt+Shift+C, install from the Chrome Web Store. Works in any Chromium-based browser.
• Slack app: inline previews + share — clipy.online/slack/install.

Pricing and numbers

$0. Forever. The pricing page states explicitly there are no plans for paid tiers. As of this writing the public counters show ~187,000 recordings shared, ~62,000 creators, ~16,000 hours captured, and ~1,750 new users in the trailing 24 hours.

Where Clipy is honestly weaker than Loom

This is the part most listicles skip. Clipy is good for honest reasons; we'll list the honest gaps too.

• No Intel Mac build. If you're on a 2019-or-earlier MacBook Pro, you're on the web app, not the native Mac app.
• No native Windows or Linux app. Web only on those platforms. (For most use cases the web app is fine; for system-audio capture beyond browser tabs, the Mac native app is the path.)
• Pre-1.0. The Mac app is on the 0.1.x train. Updates ship weekly; expect rough edges.
• Bare viewer analytics. Integer view counter, no per-viewer tracking. That's a feature for privacy, a gap if you're a sales rep who needs to know whether that prospect watched.
• No SOC 2 / GDPR certification on file. Storage is on Backblaze B2, no AI training on your uploads, hard delete on demand — but no formal compliance certifications.

If those things matter more than the seat-tax savings, look at Tella or Vidyard below. If they don't, Clipy is the answer.

Read more: Clipy: the free, no-install screen recorder built for engineers · The best free screen recorders in 2026 · Clipy on Codersera

2. Tella — best for polished product demos

Tella is the tool product marketers reach for when the recording has to feel made, not just shot. Browser-native like Clipy, but the angle is built-in editing — multi-clip timelines, animated backgrounds, auto-zoom on click, branded share pages. The output looks closer to a Loom-style explainer that someone actually polished, without leaving the browser.

Free tier: 25 videos per month, 5-minute cap per video. Paid: $15/month (Pro) unlocks unlimited videos, longer recordings, branding, custom domains.

• Pros: Best editing-in-the-recorder of any browser tool. Beautiful default zoom and cursor effects. Strong branded landing pages for shared videos.
• Cons: Free tier matches Loom's caps, so it doesn't solve the price problem unless you upgrade. No AI transcript on free.
• Best for: SaaS teams shipping public demos and onboarding videos where polish is more important than volume.

3. ScreenPal — most generous free tier of any paid tool

ScreenPal (formerly Screencast-O-Matic) is the polished option that didn't squeeze its free tier when its competitors did. You get unlimited 15-minute clips with a small watermark, basic editing, and no per-video count limit. The desktop app is light and stable.

Free tier: Unlimited 15-minute recordings, light watermark, basic editor. Paid: $3/month (Solo Deluxe) removes the watermark and unlocks longer recordings and stock media. Easily the cheapest premium tier in this category.

• Pros: Insanely cheap paid plan ($3/mo). Mature product, doesn't break. Good caption editor.
• Cons: Free-tier watermark is small but present. UI feels a generation behind Tella and Loom.
• Best for: Educators, course creators, anyone making lots of 10-15-minute lessons on a budget.

4. Cap — open-source, privacy-first, self-hostable

Cap is the open-source darling of the post-Loom moment. The desktop apps (Mac and Windows) are clean and fast; the recordings can either upload to Cap's cloud or stay entirely local. The codebase is on GitHub and you can self-host the web side if you want full data sovereignty.

Free tier: Unlimited recordings (local), Cap cloud storage with limits, MIT-licensed code. Paid: $9/month (Cap Pro) for unlimited cloud, custom domain, analytics, AI captions.

• Pros: Genuinely open source. Self-hostable. Excellent Mac app. Strong privacy posture.
• Cons: AI features are paid-only. Self-hosting takes operational effort that most teams won't actually do.
• Best for: Engineers who want code transparency, teams with strict data-residency requirements, anyone who already runs their own infra.

5. Vidyard — best for sales prospecting

Vidyard remains the category leader for B2B sales video. The Chrome extension is good, the CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, Salesloft) are real, and the per-viewer analytics tell a rep exactly which prospect watched the second half of their 90-second pitch.

Free tier: 25 videos, 5-minute cap, basic analytics. Paid: $19/month (Pro) and up; Plus plans for embedded video hubs.

• Pros: Best-in-class sales workflow. Deep CRM hooks. Strong viewer-level analytics.
• Cons: Expensive. Free tier is identical to Loom's, so it doesn't solve the cost problem unless you commit to paid.
• Best for: Sales teams that already run a Salesforce/HubSpot stack and need viewer-tracking they can act on.

6. Descript — edit your video by editing the text

Descript isn't really a Loom alternative — it's a category of its own. The premise: it transcribes your recording and then you edit the video by deleting words from the transcript. Cuts are made in the video automatically. Add an em-dash to a sentence and the model generates the missing audio in your voice. For polished narrated content (podcasts, tutorials, course modules) it's transformative.

Free tier: 1 hour transcription per month, basic editing, 5-minute video exports with watermark. Paid: $19/month (Creator) unlocks longer transcriptions, longer exports, watermark-free output.

• Pros: Edit-by-transcript is a genuine superpower. Studio Sound (background noise removal) is excellent. AI voice cloning works.
• Cons: Heavyweight desktop app. Free tier is tiny. Wrong tool if you just want a quick share link.
• Best for: Power editors making narrated tutorials, podcasters, async-video power users.

7. OBS Studio — the free power tool with a learning curve

OBS Studio is the open-source recording and streaming workhorse that powers most of Twitch. As a Loom alternative it's overkill for casual use and perfect for production-quality work. Truly unlimited, truly free, completely local. There's no sharing layer — you get an MP4 you can upload anywhere.

Free tier: Everything. No paid tier exists.

• Pros: Genuinely unlimited and free. Multi-source scenes, transitions, real-time mixing. Cross-platform (Mac, Win, Linux).
• Cons: Steep learning curve. No built-in share link — you have to host the MP4 yourself or pipe it through a separate tool.
• Best for: Streamers, advanced YouTube creators, anyone willing to spend 30 minutes learning a real production tool.

8. ScreenRec — instant shareable links, no watermark

ScreenRec sits in the niche between Loom and OBS — desktop app, no watermark on free, instant share links, but a 5 GB storage cap on the free tier. Stable, fast, no nonsense. The free experience is good enough that many teams never upgrade.

Free tier: 5 GB cloud storage, no time limit on recordings, no watermark, instant share links. Paid: $15/month (Pro) for unlimited storage, analytics, custom branding.

• Pros: No watermark on free. Instant share links. No viewer sign-up required.
• Cons: Desktop install required (no browser version). 5 GB storage cap on free fills up fast for video-heavy teams.
• Best for: Teams that want Loom's share-link UX but with a real free tier and a desktop app.

Honorable mentions: the built-ins

Three more tools worth knowing about even though they don't quite fit the listicle.

• QuickTime Player (Mac, built-in) — File → New Screen Recording. Local MP4 output. Zero install, zero cost, zero sharing layer.
• Microsoft Clipchamp (Windows 11, built-in) — bundled with Windows 11, basic screen recording plus a competent timeline editor. Free tier is real but not unlimited.
• Vimeo Record — Chrome extension from Vimeo with a Loom-style share-link flow. Free tier caps you at 25 recordings; useful if you're already a Vimeo customer.

Why teams are actually leaving Loom (community signal)

Across /r/SaaS, /r/sales, /r/Entrepreneur, and Hacker News, the post-Atlassian-migration complaints fall into four categories. We've watched these threads since November 2025; here's the consensus.

• The 10×+ price jump, already quantified above. The standard "we went from $240 to $24,000" line shows up in nearly every thread.
• Forced account migration friction. Atlassian SSO and tenant changes broke historical share links for some teams. Recordings from 2022-2023 became 404s.
• AI features behind a separate add-on. Loom's AI summary and titles are $15/user/month on top of the seat price. For a 25-seat team that's another $4,500/year.
• Loom's free tier is no longer useful. 25 videos lifetime + 5-min cap is fine for a personal account, not for an engineering team where everyone records a quick walkthrough twice a week.

The migration story most engineering teams settle on, based on those threads, is some variant of: Clipy for daily walkthroughs, Cap or OBS for high-stakes recordings that should stay local, Vidyard for the sales team specifically, Tella for the marketing team specifically. Almost nobody picks "one tool to replace Loom entirely" anymore.

How to choose: decision tree

Pick the first row that matches you. We've tested all eight; this is the order we'd actually recommend in real conversations.

Common pitfalls when migrating off Loom

Watermarks on free exports

Most "free" tools watermark the exported file. The only options that don't watermark on the free tier are Clipy, OBS, and ScreenRec. Tella, Loom, ScreenPal (small), Vidyard, Cap (in some flows), and Descript all watermark unless you upgrade.

Loom account migration issues (Atlassian)

If your team SSO'd into Loom via Atlassian and the migration broke share links, your old recordings may now require sign-in to view, or may have moved tenants. Before deleting the account, bulk-export everything (Loom Settings → Workspace → Export). Some videos may come down as 720p even if originally recorded higher.

OBS recording has no audio

On macOS 13+, OBS needs explicit screen-recording permission and a virtual audio loopback (BlackHole or Loopback) to capture system audio. The first-launch flow doesn't surface this clearly. The fix is one Terminal command for BlackHole and a multi-output device in Audio MIDI Setup.

Cap recordings not syncing to cloud

Cap's desktop app records locally first and uploads in the background. On flaky Wi-Fi the upload silently retries; sometimes you have to right-click the recording in the app and choose "Re-upload."

Large file sizes from OBS

OBS defaults to a high-bitrate MP4 (often 50 Mbps for 1080p60). For shareable walkthroughs, drop to 8 Mbps CBR and switch to libx264 at veryfast. File sizes drop ~6× with no perceptible quality loss.

A note on Loom-style tools for engineering teams

If you're an engineering team specifically, the decision is usually simpler than for a sales or marketing team. The video isn't going on a landing page — it's going in a PR description, a Slack channel, or a Linear ticket. What you actually need is: fast capture, instant share link, no install for the people watching it, and ideally a searchable transcript so the recording becomes documentation. That maps almost perfectly to Clipy. We've written a dedicated post on the engineering-team use case: Clipy: the free, no-install screen recorder built for engineers. The broader free-tier landscape (not just Loom alternatives) is covered in the best free screen recorder in 2026.

FAQ

What is the best completely free Loom alternative in 2026?

Clipy. It's the only browser-native tool with unlimited recordings, no watermark, no sign-up requirement to watch, plus a free AI transcript and AI summary on every video. It also ships a Mac app and a Chrome extension if you don't want to use the web app. There is no paid tier — it's free forever.

What happened to Loom's free plan after the Atlassian acquisition?

The free Starter plan in 2026 is capped at 25 videos lifetime per person, 5-minute recordings, and 720p quality. AI features (transcript, summary, titles) require the $15/user/month AI add-on. The former Creator Lite role — the cheap viewer-only seat most teams parked free users on — was discontinued in early 2026 and migrated to paid Business seats.

Is there a Loom alternative with a free AI transcript?

Yes — Clipy generates an AI transcript and AI summary on every recording, on the free tier, with no upgrade required. Descript also includes 1 hour of transcription per month on free, but it's positioned as an editor, not a quick-share recorder.

Can I import my existing Loom videos when switching tools?

Not as a one-click import. The standard migration path is: bulk-export from Loom (Settings → Workspace → Export), then re-upload the resulting MP4 files to your new tool. Most alternatives accept direct MP4 upload; Clipy, Cap, ScreenPal, and Vidyard all support this.

Which Loom alternative is best for long recordings (60+ minutes)?

For unlimited length, Clipy (web, Mac, Chrome ext) or OBS Studio (local file). For paid options without arbitrary caps, ScreenPal Solo Deluxe ($3/mo) and Cap Pro ($9/mo) both lift the free-tier length cap.

Is Cap really open source, and can I self-host it?

Yes — Cap's desktop apps and web service are on GitHub under permissive open-source licenses. Self-hosting the web side (the bit that handles share links and cloud storage) is technically possible but requires an Object Storage bucket (S3-compatible), a Postgres instance, and some operational effort. Most teams using Cap stick with the hosted cap.so service.

What is the best Loom alternative for Mac?

For most workflows, Clipy's Mac app — it's purpose-built for the Mac and the share-link flow is faster than anything else in this list. If you're on an Intel Mac (no Apple Silicon), Cap and ScreenPal both have universal binaries. QuickTime Player is bundled with macOS and is perfectly fine for a quick local clip.

Does Clipy work on Windows?

The Clipy web app at clipy.online works on Windows (and Linux) through any Chromium browser — Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Vivaldi. The native Mac app is Apple-Silicon-only; a native Windows app is on the roadmap but isn't shipping today. For most Loom-replacement workflows on Windows, the web app does the job.

Cheapest Loom alternative under $5/mo?

Two options: Clipy at $0 forever, or ScreenPal Solo Deluxe at $3/month if you want a polished desktop tool with stock media. Everything else in this guide starts at $9-$19/month.

Will Loom shut down?

No active signal that Loom is shutting down — Atlassian continues to develop and price the product. The migration friction in 2025-2026 was about price and account restructuring, not a product wind-down. That said, the trajectory matters more than the headline: Loom's product velocity has slowed and its competitive position has weakened.

References and further reading

• Clipy — the free, browser-native Loom alternative we ship.
• Clipy pricing — single tier, free forever.
• Clipy's own Loom-alternatives hub — comparison pages for Cap, Screen Studio, Tella, Vidyard.
• Clipy Chrome extension on the Chrome Web Store.
• Clipy on Codersera.
• Clipy for engineering teams.
• Best free screen recorder in 2026.
• Loom status history: status.loom.com (Q4 2025 incidents Oct 27, Nov 17, Nov 19).